Guitarist Jurgen Burdorf (The Netherlands, 1980) is a musical omnivore.
Late 2020 saw the release of Rhombus, Jurgens fourth album as a leader and composer.
Rhombus has received great reviews in The Netherlands, most notably in Gitarist (‘fresh fusion’ … ’strong production and band’), Music Maker (‘a fusion album to show off with’) and webzine Maxazine (‘a more than excellent album’) and other Dutch printed magazines, ranging in musical scope from progressive rock to jazz. In 2021, promotion beyond the Dutch borders will commence.
Rhombus was successfully released with a great concert in the Green Heart of Holland. The concert can be enjoyed as a live album (‘Live At The Villa’), on Youtube and on Stingray DJAZZ TV.
Rhombus picks up where it’s predecessors, ‘Picking Up Steam’ (2018), ‘Straight Up Guitar’ (2017) and debut ‘Opening Lines’ (2016) left off. All About Jazz.com called ‘Picking Up Steam’ a ‘juicy set of fusion tunes’ with ‘terrific musicianship and memorable memories’.
Playing live is what Jurgen and his Jurgen Burdorf Band are all about. They played Dutch jazz festivals Jazz In Duketown in 2016 and 2018 and Amsterdam festival Red Light Jazz in 2017.
Quotes from reviews of earlier albums:
‘‘Straight Up Guitar’ features nicely writtten compositions and is certain to go well with listeners of Steve Lukather, but also Mark Knopfler.’, ‘Burdorf is a gifted guitar player and well capable of filling an album as a primary soloist. The music remains fascinating with no place for boredom.’, ‘As a European musician, there’s no need to bow down to Americans, is what these men show.’, ‘A nice, good sounding, laid-back guitar album’ , ‘screaming solos’ en ‘contagious compositions’. ‘Burdorf is not only a technically prolific guitarist with a very nice sound, but he also managed to write ten clever compositions with a lot of variety and euphonity.’
Apart from these reviews, there’s been substantial attention for the albums on Sublime FM (Dutch Jazz Radio), in the magazine Heaven and on Bluesmagazine.nl.
Biography:
When Jurgen first heard Mark Knopfler when he was nine, he decided to start playing the guitar. Others of his guitar heroes are Bill Frisell, Steve Lukather and Dutch master Eef Albers. Jurgen studied jazz guitar at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, but never became fixated on one style of music. In the course of years he played indiepop with Janne Schra (album, tour and national TV), contemporary composed music by ao Oene van Geel, Chiel Meijering en Steven Kamperman in theatre plays by Holland Opera, country in a tribute to Dolly Parton (also playing the mandolin), in musicals ‘The Lion King’, ‘Jersey Boys’ and ‘Billy Elliot’ and jazz in de show ‘From Sammy With Love’. In his spare time he likes to listen to music by Béla Bartók and Olivier Messiaen. In short, in Jurgens world there are no borders between genres and something to learn and enjoy can be found everywhere.
